You are here

U.S. National Security Events

Reluctant allies, Pakistan and the US grudgingly need each other to reach shared goals: keeping Al Qaeda out of Afghanistan and structuring an orderly withdrawal of NATO forces. Wilson Center expert Zahid Hussain offers ways to thaw what right now is a “frozen” relationship.

David Sanger, Chief Washington Correspondent of the New York Times, discusses the Iran nuclear challenge as an issue in U.S.-Israeli relations in the wake of Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu’s visit to Washington and President Obama’s important speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

On March 26-27, Seoul will host the second Nuclear Security Summit, an initiative established by the Obama administration in Washington in 2010. Fifty world leaders, as well as scores of NGOs and industry and business representatives on the periphery of the central meeting, will discuss the summit’s main aim: to prevent loose nuclear materials from falling into the hands of terrorists. Naturally, different regional actors will have different agendas and priorities for the summit, and it is therefore important to consider the issues and concerns for Northeast Asian, South Asian, Middle Eastern, and former Soviet states and stakeholders.

Peter H. Liotta, co-author of "The Real Population Bomb: Megacities, Global Security, and the Map of the Future," was joined by Jaana Remes (McKinsey Global Institute) and Peter Engelke (Stimson Center) to discuss the geopolitical impacts of poorly managed urbanization.

Michael Kraft, former senior advisor, State Department Counterterrorism Office, and Edward Marks, former U.S. ambassador, Department of State discuss their new book, U.S. Government Counterterrorism: A Guide to Who Does What.

With George Quester, Chairman of the Department of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland and the J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Visiting Professor of International Affairs at The George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs.

Official biographer John Lewis Gaddis paints a fascinating and multidimensional portrait of George Kennan, the post-war diplomat who set forth containment doctrine, presaged the collapse of the Soviet Union, and, in later years, became an outspoken critic of U.S. foreign policy, including of the war in Vietnam. At the launch Wednesday of George F. Kennan: An American Life, Gaddis revealed the personality behind one of the 20th century’s great policy minds.

The physical border should be “our last line of defense, not our first” in the fight against trans-global crime networks and other security threats, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said at The Wilson Center on Tuesday.

While the military has made the goal of increased cultural knowledge and awareness a priority since the mid-2000s, these developments have yet to be accounted for as part of a broad inter-agency conversation among military and non-military stakeholders. Join us for a conference focusing on the U.S. military’s efforts to develop cultural expertise.